Green Gardening Tools are Getting Brighter and Better

Last month this TreeHugger was complaining about how the most innocent of pleasures, such as guerrilla gardening, was being turned into a business. Now I have returned to Selfridges to re-test my thesis, as in shop.

Selfridge's Department Store has turned its front windows into a big display of guerrilla gardening paraphernalia and now it has opened a pop-up shop called Grow! where it is flogging some pretty unique stuff. These adorable bloom my buddy pots are dutch and created for dutch flowers and plants. They are made of 3 separate pieces which fit together and each holds water so that flowers and branches can be inserted.

Photo: B. Alter

Equally irresistible are these Rainy Day garden kits. They are little baby rain boots made out of ceramic and packed with peat pucks and seed packs of either herbs or flowers. Just add rain (or tap water) to expand the peat, then sow the seeds. The boots come in red, yellow, blue, and green.

Photo: B. Alter

The inestimable Guerrilla Gardener himself has branched out to designing gardening accoutrements. This bag was designed for carrying tools or small plants, or even shopping. It was designed with WiTHiNTENT. They use fabric from the broken and damaged tents that are left behind at the end of music festivals and create shower-proof clothing and accessories.

Photo: B. Alter

There is also a small industry making lavender cachets out of the lavender planted and harvested in some of their not so secret spots in South London. These are made by the Guerrilla Gardeners Haberdashery Division (!) with beautiful recycled fabrics from Traid and finished off with a sweet little Guerrilla Gardener label. We first spotted them in 2007 at half the price, but not quite so nice.

Note the pot too: it is so hard to find recyclable garden pots and this French one from Normandy is a good solid shape and size. It can sit on the ground or firmly on a balcony railing which is pretty good design. It is produced in France with 70% flax, which makes it light, frost-resistant and very strong. A real find.